Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: How Do I Make a High-Spec PC Waterproof?
jimwormold writes: I need to build a system for outdoor use, capable of withstanding a high pressure water jet! "Embedded PC," I hear you cry. Well, ideally yes. However, the system does a fair bit of number crunching on a GPU (GTX970) and there don't appear to be any such embedded systems available. The perfect solution will be as small as possible (ideally about 1.5x the size of a motherboard, and the height will be limited to accommodate the graphics card). I'm U.K.- based, so the ambient temperature will range from -5C to 30C, so I presume some sort of active temperature control would be useful.
I found this helpful discussion, but it's 14 years old. Thus, I thought I'd post my question here. Do any of you enlightened Slashdotters have insights to this problem, or know of any products that will help me achieve my goals?
I found this helpful discussion, but it's 14 years old. Thus, I thought I'd post my question here. Do any of you enlightened Slashdotters have insights to this problem, or know of any products that will help me achieve my goals?
Can you give us curious folk a hint as to what you're doing?
This is the big question. Because, to riff off the 14 years old discussion, wireless has progressed leaps and bounds since then. So simply putting the PC inside a waterproof chest and using a combination of WiFi, Bluetooth, and a few wireless display technologies. This is what is presently on Intel's product roadmap anyway.
Your biggest problem is likely to be the monitor. Every means we have to produce significant amount of light (especially required for outdoor viewing), requires dissipation of heat. That means venting. Which means air holes. Which can get spray in it.
So really the question can't be answered unless you explain the purpose of the PC. Is it there to do things like take measurements? Can it be controlled from a mobile phone? (they're much easier to seal) This is what is needed to know how to give further advice.
Double enclosed is best, but you probably don't have room for that. I've been putting stuff in food processing plants for 20+ years though where the conditions (especially during cleanup) are comparable. Find the smallest Pelican case (there are generic knockoffs, if you go with one check it thoroughly before trusting it) and equip it with a thermostatic heater to keep the temperature above 70F or so all the time to limit condensation. Pack in a big bag of dessicant because without double enclosure that still won't be perfect.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Many years ago, friend of mine was in army. He was in secret devision and one day they give to him a order: "Change the HDD of this PC" and they give to him new HDD, hammer and chisel.
He has surprised, because when open PC cover see massive block of epoxy. People before just fill the PC box with epoxy and made it fully water, shock and dust proof. Simple and reliable !
You must keep in mind that may be will have a problem with cooling of some staff like video card. You can do it with water block, if is not possible to cooling.
The original problem was underspecified.
Water cooling with or without an intervening diffusion system would work, but only if the water environment were constantly available. Ships use water cooling for their engines because it is reliably available, nearly free, and can be dumped right where our came from without harm. But this only works because ships are nearly always in their operating environment, and when they aren't, they don't start their engines. Doesn't work for seaplanes.
The proposed system seems small enough to be portable, so will want to work on the test bench. In any case, the OP didn't state the device would always be exposed to water.
BTW, mineral oil works great when it can be used. Long ago I needed to run a big full-wave power supply bridge at four times its rated capacity, so I removed the four diodes from their big heat sink and immersed them in a mayonnaise jar of mineral oil. (Heat sink wouldn't fit.) It worked fine for a great many years, mineral oil having much greater thermal transport capacity than air, and the mayonnaise jar having sufficient area to dump the heat into the air.
But servicing components inside a mayonnaise jar of mineral oil is neither a simple nor a neat procedure.